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Photo: BNS
BNS photo
In the autumn of last year, Gintautas Matulis, who played the most official match for this team, returned to the Utena Juventus club. At that time, in the early days of this year, the second basketball player in terms of number of official matches, Vaidas Čepukaitis, joined the Aukštaitija club, the club announced.
Vaidas Čepukaitis
| MIN: | 20.88 |
| PTS: | 8.75 (63.81%) |
| REB: | 6.33 |
| AS: | 1 |
| ST: | 0.75 |
| BS: | 0.58 |
| TO: | 1.5 |
| GM: | 12 |
The 31-year-old and 207cm tall midfielder, who has worn the Juventus jersey for three seasons in the past, signed a contract with Utena’s team until the end of this season.
This is the second basketball player who started the season at the Kėdainiai Nevėžio-Optibet club and joined the Juventus organization. A little earlier, another resident of Alytus, Vaidas Kariniauskas, came to Utena’s team. For both players, the people of Utena paid a ransom to the Kėdainiai club.
“First of all, I would like to say that the situation of Julius Jucikas is very regrettable,” said Jimentus team manager Eimantas Skersis. – Julius really started the season successfully, he showed a solid game, so it is very disappointing due to the situation that happened. I want to wish Julius a speedy recovery and get back on the basketball court.
After losing Julius, we started looking for reinforcements up the high chain. The foreign variants did not convince us, so we decided to limit ourselves to Lithuanian. The manager decided that he wanted a typical midfielder, and when Vaidas Čepukaitis’s offer was presented, we decided that this was the most optimal option for our club. Vaidas has accumulated a lot of experience, he knows our club well, the coach’s philosophy of play. The first match of the KMT quarterfinals awaits us on Wednesday, so if anyone can join the team so quickly it is only Vaidas.
I have always said that the history of the club is very important to me, which is why Vaid’s return is a great New Year’s gift. It’s funny that the player himself was very eager to come back, he accepted our financial conditions, which are certainly not miraculous. After returning to the Juventus club a couple of years ago, Vaidas said he would like to hang another triumph sign at Utena Stadium. It didn’t work out then, but who knows, maybe it’ll be done this season. “
The tall man successfully started the 2020-2021 Lithuanian Basketball League season and scored an average of 9.1 points (59% from colonies, 78% from penalties) in 20 minutes spent on the parquet, bounced 6.1 balls, made a successful pass and collected after 13.6 utility score.
Čepukaitis is a true legend of the Juventus team. The tall man who played for Utena in the 2010-2011, 2014-2015 and 2018-2019 seasons contributed to all of the team’s most important trophies: the 2011 Baltic Basketball League (BBL) Challenge Cups, the bronze medals from LKL and BBL obtained in 2015 and bronze from KMT in 2018.
During his Juventus career, the tall has played 194 games (second place in club history), scored 1,736 points (first place in club history), bounced 1,076 balls (first place in club history), blocked 184 shots (first place in club history) and scored 231 assists (eleventh place in club history).
The return of Čepukaitis to the Juventus club should take place this Wednesday, when the people of Utena will face the Vilnius Rytas team at home in the first quarter-final match of the King Mindaugas Cup Tournament (KMT).
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